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Gonzalo Thought (Spanish: Pensamiento Gonzalo) or Marxism–Leninism–Maoism–Gonzalo Thought[1] is an ideological doctrine developed by Peruvian revolutionary Abimael Guzmán as an interpretation of Peruvian reality based on Marxism–Leninism–Maoism.
Anti-revisionist in nature, Gonzalo Thought was the ideological basis of the Communist Party of Peru—Shining Path (PCP-SL) and the trigger for the era of terrorism that the Andean country experienced between the 1980s and 1990s.[2][3] Based on Marx, Lenin, Mao and Mariátegui (and under the premise of converting this system of ideas into a doctrine, "Gonzaloism"), the term comes from the alias used by Abimael Guzmán, President Gonzalo, who was considered by his followers as the "Fourth Sword of Marxism" and, therefore, a direct successor of Marx, Lenin and Mao.[1][4]
Although initially raised from the Peruvian reality through a Marxist analysis, Gonzalo Thought expanded to culture, society and language outside Peru, forming the ideological basis of revolutionary groups abroad.[5]
Gonzalo Thought is characterized as anti-democratic and authoritarian. Its adherents put it into practice on their way to implement the People's Republic of New Democracy through the doctrine of "protracted people's war," often entailing terrorist actions to intimidate the population.[2][5]
After the capture of Abimael Guzmán in 1992, various currents claimed to maintain Gonzalo Thought (among them Sendero Rojo or the MOVADEF[6][7]) while other Sendero leaders, such as Víctor Quispe Palomino, renounced the Gonzalo Thought altogether and adopted other ideological lines or simply turned to narcotraffic.[8]
The figures who inspired Abimael Guzmán were Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and José Carlos Mariátegui, as well as the academic Efraín Morote Best (folklorist and father of the senderista Osmán Morote Barrionuevo), who was rector at the National University of San Cristóbal de Huamanga (UNSCH) in Ayacucho.[5][9]
Gonzalo Thought was first called "Guiding Thought of Comrade Gonzalo", then "Guiding Thought of President Gonzalo" and, after the celebration of the First Congress of the Shining Path (between 1988 and 1989), it would become "Gonzalo Thought".[10]
The bases of Gonzalo Thought are:
Finally, Gonzalo Thought unites all of the above and applies it to the Peruvian reality as a development elaborated by Guzmán from the thought of Mariátegui (Mariátegui's thought being considered a "political expression of the Peruvian working class").[12] Gonzalo Thought was accepted by Guzmán's followers as an official ideology, as it would be "the only scientific one", a superior way of appreciating reality.[12]
Gonzalo Thought adheres to the anti-revisionist line of Marxism, considering revisionists as:
A cancer, a cancer that has to be ruthlessly swept away, otherwise we will not be able to advance in the revolution; and remember what Lenin said, synthetically, we must forge in two issues, forge in revolutionary violence and forge in the implacable struggle against opportunism, against revisionism.[13]
In this way, ideological purity and complete adherence to what was considered the correct line within Marxism was encouraged.[14]
Gonzalo Thought calls for the use of violence through the "people's war" and the "blood quota."[1] For Guzmán:
Regarding violence, we start from a principle established by Chairman Mao Tse Tung: violence is a universal law without any exception, I mean revolutionary violence; This violence is what allows us to resolve the fundamental contradictions with an army and through the people's war. It is a substantive question of Marxism because without revolutionary violence one class cannot be replaced by another, an old order cannot be overthrown to create a new one, a new order led by the proletariat through communist parties.[15]
Violence, as a manifestation of class struggle, was seen as a fundamental step to overthrow the old, enabling the emergence of an overcoming stage of capitalism: communism.[16]
Within Gonzalo Thought, education has the role of recruitment, propaganda and indoctrination of the masses. In this way, the control of university spaces is considered important to train university students in Gonzalo Thought so that they can transmit Guzmán's postulates to the masses.[17]
The cult of personality around Abimael Guzmán was promoted by the Shining Path, reaching the level of fanaticism.[1] Described as a "messianic leader", the capture of Guzman directly led to the Shining Path's collapse.[18][19] Upon his death a national debate ensued that led to the cremation of his remains.[20]
Gonzalo Thought categorized all types of private property or commerce as capitalist, going so far as murdering cattle and destroying hydroelectric plants; the justification was that all of these were capitalist instruments. This action was compared to British Luddism of the 19th century. Furthermore, highland peasants were prohibited from buying or selling, for the very fact that it was considered capitalist.[1]
Anyone who was related to or was identified as part of the "bourgeois state", or a collaborator with it, deserved execution, which is why cruelty in murders was encouraged to achieve the obedience of the masses.[1]
Inspired by Mao's Cultural Revolution (which sought to eliminate the remains of what were considered capitalist and traditional elements of Chinese society), Gonzalo Thought promoted a permanent "cultural revolution" that would eliminate representatives of the previous society, "changing souls" and preventing the return of capitalism.[21]
